Chapter 17 Early Earth and The Origin of Life

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• Chapter 17 Early Earth and The Origin of
  Life

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Early history of life

• Solar system 12 billion years ago (bya)
• Earth 4.5 bya
• Life 3.5 to 4.0 bya
• Prokaryotes 3.5 to 2.0 bya stromatolites
• Oxygen accumulation 2.7 bya photosynthetic
  cyanobacteria
• Eukaryotic life 2.1 bya
• Muticelluar eukaryotes 1.2 bya
• Animal diversity 543 mya
• Land colonization 500 mya

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The Origin of Life

• Spontaneous generation vs. biogenesis (Pasteur)
• The 4-stage Origin of life Hypothesis
• 1- Abiotic synthesis of organic monomers
• 2- Polymer formation
• 3- Origin of Self-replicating molecules
• 4- Molecule packaging (protobionts)

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Organic monomers/polymer synthesis

• Oparin (Rus.)/Haldane (G.B.) hypothesis
  (primitive earth) volcanic vapors (reducing
  atmosphere) with lightning UV radiation
  enhances complex molecule formation (no O2)
• Miller/Urey experiment
• water, hydrogen, methane, ammonia
• all 20 amino acids, nitrogen bases, ATP formed
• Fox proteinoid formation (abiotic polypeptides)
  from organic monomers dripped on hot sand, clay
  or rock
• Oparin (coacervates) protobionts (aggregate
  macromolecules abiotic) surrounded by a shell of
  H2O molecules coated by a protein membrane

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Abiotic genetic replication

• First genetic material
• Abiotic production of ribonucleotides
• Ribozymes (RNA catalysts)
• RNA cooperation
• Formation of short polypeptides (replication
  enzyme?)
• RNA DNA template?

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The Major Lineages of Life
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The Major Lineages of Life

Common Ancestor